Shiva Aliabadi

Region: Pacific Coast

I experiment with aspects of painting, continually challenging the notion of painting and what it could be. I manipulate the frame (substrate), pigment, and binder of a painting in order to push past their traditional or recognizable boundaries. Often what I
call a “canvas” is no longer fabric stretched over a poplar frame, but a honeycomb aluminum bed sitting on the floor, or painters’ plastic extended from a roll on the wall. The pigment itself includes powders and rubbers rather than traditional oil
or acrylic.
Many of my pieces include charcoal or pigment powder traces on the floor or wall, or imprints from the installers’ footprints. These traces of process become key elements in the “final”
piece, integrating the history of the work’s making into itself.
Even though my work sometimes assimilates structural, three-dimensional elements, I continually use painting language, and
I see the work as painting.

Current Issue

Blog

She has finally come, born across centuries and oceans and the yawning gaps of the pied world hewn for us and by us from the flesh and bone of the Earth, across the ragged expanse—flesh hanging like foliage...

NAP is still soaking up the sun at Art Week Miami. First, we took a trip to see the 20 NAP Alumni taking over UNTITLED Miami, now we roll on over to NADA Miami and share 17 NAP Alumni and stand-out stars. ...